The embodiments described herein relate generally to the field of making bread, specifically flatbread.
Roti, also known as chapatti, is an unleavened flatbread originating from the Indian subcontinent. Although a piece of roti can have any suitable shape (e.g., an irregular shape), many rotis are roughly circular in shape having a diameter within the range of 150 mm to 300 mm and a thickness of between approximately lmm and 4 mm. The main ingredients used to make roti are flour, water and oil. Additional herbs and seasonings can be added to make the roti more flavorful. Roti is often used in place of a utensil to eat food. The user tears off a small portion of roti, folds it around a piece of food, and pinches the food in order to bring the food from the plate to the user's mouth. Roti can also be used as a wrap where the user places food into the roti, and folds the roti over the food.
The traditional method for cooking roti involves creating a large batch of dough by mixing and kneading the ingredients. A small bit of dough is removed and rolled flat with a rolling pin on a flat surface. The flattened dough is placed on a hot cooking surface, flipped once, and then placed on an open flame to puff the Roti into a nearly spherical shape. The roti is removed from the flame and allowed to return to a flattened state. Finally, the roti is placed in a closed lid container with other pieces of roti until ready to be served. This method involves many steps, is time consuming, and is not well-suited for being automated with existing bread makers.
Most traditional automatic bread makers require that the user manually measure and add all of the ingredients to the machine. These bread makers then mix the ingredients and bake the dough in the same chamber for a fixed amount of time set by the cycle selected by a user. Such known bread makers are not suitable for making flatbread such as roti. For example, although such known bread makers can mix ingredients to produce dough, they are reliant on the user to select and measure the ingredients. This can result in inconsistent baked products, as a result of differences in flour, inaccurate measurements, and the like. Such known bread makers also do not have any mechanism to flatten the dough and cook a flatbread into its final form. Moreover, known bread makers do not have a mechanism to flip dough during the baking process, which is important to producing an authentic roti. For example, by flipping the dough, the dough can be heated from a single side, and the moisture can escape from an upwardly-oriented side (i.e., the “top” side). Known bread makers, however, do not emulate this portion of the cooking process.
Some known bread makers include a mechanism that flattens the dough with two plates (like a press) and then bakes the dough on both sides. Although these devices are acceptable for some flatbreads such as focaccia and tortillas, but they not acceptable for making certain flatbreads such as roti. As described above, when roti is cooked the dough puffs up into a nearly spherical shape which cannot be done in such known flatbread maker devices.
Thus, a need exists for devices and methods of automating the process of making flatbreads, such as roti.